Technically, yes. But should you?

Just in case you live under a rock, both Facebook and Instagram went down in early October 2021 – leaving more than 3.5 billion people around the world stuck trying to communicate with friends and family… and thousands of small businesses unable to expand their businesses through advertising and outreach. 

Yes, there are a bunch of benefits to using social media to promote your business: 

• You’ve got instant access to millions of people, all ready to engage with your content 
• You don’t have to do any complex coding to get started. Just add a few images and a bio to your profile and boom, you’re good to go
• It’s easy for your audience to use and engage with your brand
• It can be updated from the palm of your hand, wherever you are
• It’s free

For many small business owners it feels like social media is a great way to run your online presence for free – you don’t have to pay for hosting, design a website, or start from scratch to get your audience’s attention. 

Okay, social media might seem like the perfect answer for any business starting off but if something seems too good to be true, it is. 

I quit social media for my business in 2021 and don’t regret it for a moment, so I might be a little biased.

Let’s take a deeper look at promoting a small business and figure out whether or not relying on social media to fuel your small business is a good or bad idea. 

But first, does this mean websites are dead?

Let’s say social media is the answer to every small business’ online promotion problem. They don’t need to have a website because they can put everything they need on social media. 

They can advertise products, talk about their services, and their customers can even leave reviews. 

Does this mean that websites are dead?

Are they obsolete and no longer needed for the survival of online businesses?

No. 

You own your website. You’re not relying on someone else’s platform to promote your business. You can post what you want, when you want. If your social media platform of choice decides to change their terms and conditions and suddenly you’re no longer in line with their policies, your profiles will be turned off. Goodbye entire business online. 

When you have your own website, you’re in control. 

Social media vs. a website – there’s one clear winner

Solely relying on social media to run your business is like not owning your own house. 

Renting is okay for a little while, but ultimately you can’t really do anything to change the way your home looks, feels, or even works. 

You have no control over what happens on social media. The servers could go down, your account could get hacked, and you could lose a lot of customers (and money). 

If this the little Facebook and Instagram blackout wasn’t enough to scare you into making a website for your small business, stay tuned because I’ve got 5 reasons you should stop relying on social media to sell your business. 

1. Social media offers the bare minimum customization 

On most social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can update your profile picture, add a banner, and write a short bio about yourself for your customers to read. 

This is great. It encourages your audience to get to know your brand, recognize your company, and become familiar with what you do. But social media can’t offer your audience everything. 

You can’t customize your social media account to be in your brand colors or contain helpful sections that give your audience the information they need when they need it. 

You can’t add a blog, an about us page, or a clever contact page, and you most certainly can’t write out your services in detail. 

Your audience is just left looking at what social media allows you to post. 

With a website, you can have all of this and more. 

You can create a detailed website for your small business that clearly outlines all the amazing things your company can do for your clients. You can tell your story, highlight pictures, and create something that will give your audience something more to remember you by. 

2. You don’t have full control 

Unfortunately, you don’t own Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You don’t even own your profile. It might have your company name and logo, but it doesn’t belong to you. 

All the content you post and every image you upload belongs to that social media platform. It’s uploaded to their platform, and if they decide to delete forever, well, there’s not much you can do about that. 

There are a lot of reports of accounts being shut down for no reason too. Sometimes your posts can be deleted without question, losing you a lot of precious engagement. 

If you have a website, you can share your knowledge online with your audience, and you’ll know it’ll stay there until you decide to take it down or change it. 

Having a website gives you ultimate control of what you can post and how it looks. 

3. Limited security 

Having your own website means you can install the best of the best when it comes to your security. You can make sure that all your data, your files, and your client’s personal details are tightly kept under lock and key. 

However, if you’re putting all your faith in social media to run your business, keep a hold of all your information and your details, then they won’t be as secure as you think. 

You could quickly lose customer information and order details if you solely rely on a social media messenger to keep track of this kind of data. Plus, your social media account can easily be hacked, much easier than a website with advanced security built-in. 

Don’t put your company or your customers at risk by storing vital information on social media. 

4. There’s no back-up

Having a backup plan is always essential in the world of business. So having a backup of all your customer information, your data, and your sensitive information is necessary to ensure that you don’t lose anything. 

You can’t back up your social media profile. So if it gets deleted, it’s gone for good, and there’s not really much you can do to get it back. 

With a website, you can easily make sure that your data is safe by backing it up. This helps you prevent any loss from hackers or human error.

5. It’s not as professional as you think

You can make your social media account look pretty professional, especially when you put your beautiful logo as your profile picture and get a banner made. It can look great, but it really isn’t as professional as you might think. 

Many people will come to a business page on social media and look for a website because websites are expected of companies. Having a website boosts your credibility and makes you look more trustworthy to work with. 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of scams floating around online, and by not having a professionally-designed website for your business, you’re at risk of being seen as one. 

75% of credibility comes from website design, so by not having one, you’re losing out on being able to show your audience why you’re the right company to work with. 

Should you get a website for your small business?

Around 36% of small businesses don’t have a website up and running, and 35% feel that their company is too small to need a website. 

But even the smallest business can benefit from having a website for their company. If you want to be seen online by your audience and improve your online presence, then a website is an absolute necessity. 

Here are a few benefits to having a website for small businesses:

• You look professional
• You can give your audience access to all the information they need to know about your products or services
• You’ll completely own it
• Your business name will come up in the search results 
• It’ll be easier to increase higher quality leads online
• You can track how many customers are buying from you with detailed analytics
• Ability to create an online portfolio
• It’s more secure for you and your customers

If you’ve decided that a website is what your company needs to succeed online then our team can help you out. 

At Emtwo, we help businesses just like yours craft the perfect online presence and build the ideal website. 

If you’re ready to create the right online presence for your company then get in contact with our team today!

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